Virginia Man sets World Land Speed Record

By Bill Lightfoot, Lightfoot Associates
Photographs by Robert Parker

Wendover, Utah - On Sunday, August 16, 2009 a 71-year-old  Vienna, Va., man set a new automobile world land speed record in the under two liter modified sports class (G/BFMS) on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. 

Bill Lightfoot, a northern Virginia businessman, drove a turbocharged Alfa Romeo roadster to an average speed over two runs of 225. 839 miles per hour to set a new world record. His highest timed speed over the two runs was 228.853 mph. The previous record for this class, held by a team from Las Vegas, Nevada, was 221.252 mph.

“Setting a world speed record on the Bonneville Salt Flats has been a dream of mine since the early 1950s when I first started reading about the Bonneville competitions.” Lightfoot says. “I would like to thank the car owner, Richard Kreines, of Chicago, and the engine builder, Jim Steck, of Dayton, Ohio, for enabling me to achieve this lifelong goal.” He added. “Doing something like this at my age just goes to show that we are never too old to do something really stupid.”

The sanctioning body for the Bonneville Speed Week event, where Lightfoot’s record was set, is the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA). Unhappily, this year’s event was marred by the death of longtime land-speed competitor Barry Bryant, 46, of Anderson, California. Bryant died when his racer went out of control at approximately 200 mph.

Additional information on Bonneville Speed Week and the Land Speed Records may be found at SCTA-BNI.org